After dinner, Hoang Tuan entered his bedroom as usual. Looking at the familiar ceiling, he felt a bit complicated for no apparent reason.
"I've been in this world for four months now..."
Hoang Tuan lay on the bed. Placing his hands in front of his eyes, he slightly opened them, letting light filter through the gaps between his fingers, creating strips of light shining on his face.
Outside was quiet. In late winter, snowflakes fell from the sky like white spots, covering the ground like a white silk curtain.
Vehicles parked by the roadside were also blanketed in a pristine layer, resembling fluffy sheep wool.
Windows were covered with a thin layer of frost, blurring the world as if warm breath had been exhaled onto it.
"In truth, I quite like it here," mumbled Hoang Tuan.
Before coming to this world, he had imagined it to be an extremely dangerous place, full of supernatural creatures.
Looking into the eyes of horror and blood-soaked hell...
Or struggling to survive, seeking rules to find the right path to existence.
But what he didn't expect was that this place actually brought him warmth he hadn't experienced in a long time and the happiness of a family.
He would never have to worry about not having food or any pressure on himself.
When going to school, his mother often visited him, sometimes bringing his favorite food, sometimes bringing warm clothes in fear that he would have nothing to wear when the weather turned cold.
Although his mother was quite long-winded, she always said, "Study hard, and in the future, you'll have a good life," a phrase repeated thousands of times. She would force Hoang Tuan to wear a sweater he didn't like.
But in the end, that was the feeling Hoang Tuan envied and longed for in the real world...
Unfortunately, he was not fortunate. In real life, Hoang Tuan's parents divorced immediately after he was born. His father found a beautiful and virtuous woman to start a new family, and his mother also found a reliable and motivated man for herself. After his mother had a second child...
Hoang Tuan, who became an extra in the family, was eventually handed over to his grandmother to be raised as an orphan.
In the end, when he was in the second grade, his grandmother passed away.
The funny thing is...
On the surface, Hoang Tuan's parents had never even looked at his grandmother after her death.
Calculating precisely, he hadn't seen those two for more than ten years...
In misfortune, there was fortune. Luckily, Hoang Tuan, with his crippled legs, learned to write novels on the internet when he was in middle school. At least, he could earn some money to get by, so he wouldn't starve on the streets.
He didn't really complain much about it.
When he constantly thought about these things, he would tell himself, "It's a challenge that fate has set in life," and these things were actually helping him grow.
But anyway...
To say he wasn't jealous.
That would be a lie...
Hoang Tuan sighed.
Maybe she missed her husband a lot, so she created such a beautiful world.
"Unfortunately, it's all fake."
"This world is fake."
"Mom is also fake..."
Hoang Tuan put his hand down, lying straight on the bed, closed his eyes, forcing himself to enjoy this rare and precious moment.
...
The next day, the alarm clock on the bedside table rang loudly, waking him up at an unknown time.
Hoang Tuan opened his eyes.
Glancing at the calendar on the wall.
February 13th.
He got up, dressed, pulled back the curtain, and looked outside.
Snow was still falling, there were almost no people on the street, and occasionally one or two footprints were left, quickly covered by the accumulating snow.
This snowfall was really big.
At least he had never seen such a big snowfall in the real world; it seemed like this world was about to be engulfed.
"Hoang Tuan, come out and eat noodles."
His mother's urging voice came from the living room, and Hoang Tuan closed the curtain, opened the door, and went outside.
Hoang Lan and Tran Thien Nga were lying on the heating table doing homework.
Dinh Phuc sat on the sofa and watched the news being broadcast.
Since the New Year had not passed for long, everyone was still at home...
Hoang Tuan grabbed the noodles and sat next to Hoang Lan, starting to eat. In his heart, he thought that when the school doctor and others violated his mother's rules by raising supernatural beings, all of this would not exist.
Who could have thought.
One might experience these warm feelings in a horror world.
Coincidentally, as he finished his bowl of noodles, Hoang Tuan picked up the bowl and headed to the kitchen.
The noodles were still stir-fried with scallions.
Hoang Tuan still liked it...
"Sis, there's only strawberry and chocolate left. Which one do you choose?"
Hoang Lan came over with two popsicles.
"Hoang Lan, eating popsicles in winter, Mom will scold you to death!"
Hoang Tuan snatched the popsicle from Hoang Lan and prepared to put it in the refrigerator's ice compartment.
"What winter? It's clearly summer now!"
Hoang Lan snatched the strawberry popsicle back, her angry face stuffing it into her mouth. "I was just pretending to ask you, don't try to grab the strawberry popsicle from me!"
Summer?
Hoang Tuan dumbfoundedly looked at Hoang Lan in front of him, then realized that she was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved summer shirt.
A small drop of sweat fell from his forehead, and Hoang Tuan wiped it away.
He looked down at his clothes, also wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.
Hoang Tuan hurriedly went to the living room, but no one was there.
Dinh Phuc, who was watching TV, and Tran Thien Nga doing homework, had disappeared.
The bright light outside the window and the high temperature inside the room created a sharp contrast with the scene just a minute ago.
"Hoang Lan, where is Thiên Nga? Where are mom and dad?"
Hoang Tuan hesitated, asking Hoang Lan.
"Your little sister? She's at her friend's house!"
"Dad is on a business trip, and mom just went out to buy groceries."
Hoang Lan looked at Hoang Tuan suspiciously, unable to understand why he asked such a question.
"Hoang Lan, what's today's date?"
"...Hoang Tuan, did you forget again?"
Hoang Lan looked at Hoang Tuan and pointed to the calendar hanging next to the TV.
For the strange question from Hoang Tuan, she could only understand that maybe he wanted to play a prank on her again.
After all, she remembered the last time when Hoang Tuan pretended to be infected with zombies, jumping and chasing her, making her scared to the point of crying, but then he burst into laughter.
July 20, 2003.
Hoang Tuan was staring at the calendar, not expecting time to reverse so much at this moment!
Time suddenly began to flow backward without any warning!
"Hoang Tuan, what are you looking at?"
Someone suddenly tapped him from behind.
Hoang Tuan turned his head.
It was Tran Thien Nga.
"Thien Nga? You're not..."
He swallowed the words on his lips.
In front of him, Tran Thien Nga was wearing a thin coat and shorts, completely different from when she and Hoang Lan were doing homework in the morning.
Hoang Tuan turned back to look at the calendar.
March 20, 2004.
It was all messed up, everything was messed up.
Hoang Tuan froze in place, everything around him was changing at a nearly blink-of-an-eye speed.
Seasons changed from spring to summer and summer to autumn immediately.
Day and night kept changing.
The calendar, the wall clock, were also changing abnormally.
Sometimes flowing backward, sometimes flowing forward...